Cartridge shell reloading machines have been around for many years. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a typical prior art progressive shell reloader machine 1. The progressive shell reloader machine 1 comprises a main machine assembly 2, a platform assembly 3, a toolhead assembly 4, reloading tools 5, a casefeed assembly 6, a primer feed assembly 7, and a powder check assembly 8. The progressive shell reloader machine 1, sequentially performs the following operations: A shell casing is resized, and the expended primer is removed from the shell casing. A new primer is emplaced in the shell casing and the mouth of the shell casing is expanded to facilitate the insertion of the bullet. Powder is placed in the shell casing. A bullet is inserted in the shell casing. Finally, the bullet is crimped into the shell casing. These operations are performed on a series of shell casings held by the machine and rotated to each of several stations by a cam actuated rotation mechanism. Each pull of the operating handle 9 performs at each station a particular action(s) on the shell casing at that station and then rotates f the shell casings to the next station. Once the first shell has passed through each station, a completed cartridge is delivered with each operation of the operating handle 9.
FIG. 3 shows a view of the main machine assembly 2 of the prior art progressive shell reloader machine 1. The main machine assembly 2 has a frame 26, to which is coupled the casefeed assembly 6. The main machine assembly 2 also has a main shaft 28, which sliding fits through a hold in the frame 26. The main shaft 28 is moved up and down through the frame 26 by the operating handle 9 and a series of linkages. The main machine assembly 2 includes a indexer block 24 and a primer cam 61, both fixed to the frame. The indexer block 24 interacts with the platform assembly 3 to advance the shell casings 56 though the reloading process. The primer cam 61 interacts with the primer feed assembly 7 to advance feeding of primers to the reloading process.
FIG. 4 shows a view of a platform assembly 3 of a prior art progressive shell reloader machine 1. The platform assembly 3 comprises a shellplate 25, a platform 18, a ring indexer 10. The ring indexer 10 is mounted on the main shaft 28. The shellplate 25 nests within the platform 18, which together are coupled to the main shaft 28 over the ring indexer 10 with a shellplate bolt 50.
In operation, the main shaft 28, along with the platform assembly 3, moves upward in response to linkage as the operating handle 9 is rotated downward. In response to the upward rotational motion of the operating handle 9 of the machine, the main shaft 28, along with the platform assembly 3, moves downward. The indexer block 24 mounted on the frame 26 engages a linear cam surface 72 of the ring indexer 10 (See FIG. 5) to cause the ring indexer 10 to rotate the shellplate 25 a number of degrees equal to 360 divided by the number of stations provided by the particular reloading machine. The indexer block 24 has a sloping surface 76 which contacts the cam advance surface 74, forcing the ring indexer 10 to advance to the next station as the operating handle 9 of the reloading machine is moved toward its upper limit. The ring indexer 10 advances the shellplate 25 by means of index pawl 16 and pawl spring 14, with the index pawl 16 engaging with one of a plurality of holes in the shellplate 25. The degree of cam advance is determined by the length of the ring indexer cam surface 72. At the end of the advance of the ring indexer 10, a vertical surface 78 of the indexer block 24 contacts the ring indexer 10 to maintain the ring indexer 10 in its position until a steel indexing ball 22 is snapped into position by an indexing spring 20 to maintain the advancement of the ring indexer 10. When the operating handle 9 of the reloading machine is moved downward again, the platform 18 and the ring indexer 10 are raised clear of the indexer block 24 and an indexer return spring 12 rotates the ring indexer 10 back to its starting position.
Reloading machines typically use sliding contacting elements, which do not control the acceleration and deceleration of moving parts. The result is machines with limited usefulness which spill gunpowder during operation. This slows the process down as the operator must stop and clean up the spilled powder, which is a fire hazard if left. The shell casings from which powder spilled will not have the correct amount of powder, so the operator must remove them and start over.
A first deficiency with this prior art progressive shell reloader machine 1 design is that the steel indexing ball 22, as it is accelerated by the indexing spring 20, causes powder grains to bounce out of the powder charged shell casings as the indexing ball 22 is seated in the shellplate 25.
A second deficiency, as shown in FIG. 5, is the sliding contact between the prior art ring indexer 10 and indexer block 24, which can be rough and halting in operation. The cam advancement mechanism is a compound cam with only sliding contact, having an indexer block 24 with two flat sliding surfaces, the index block sloping surface 76 contacts sloping part of the linear cam 72 and provides the total rotational advancement. The index block vertical surface 78 slidingly contacts the trailing edge of the linear cam 72 to maintain the end of advancement. Because of the sharply different angles of the two surfaces on the indexer block 24, the transition of the indexer block 24 from the sloping part of the linear cam 72 to the trailing edge can be abrupt and jarring. One prior art improvement is to replace the indexer block 24 with a roller cam actuator 30 (See FIG. 11). This reduces the jarring motion as the roller cam actuator 30 contact the sloping part of the linear cam 72, but first contact and the transition to the vertical part of the linear cam 72 can still be jarring.
A third deficiency, is that it is difficult to troubleshoot the progressive shell reloader machine 1 because there is not easy way turn off the shell case feed system and the primary feed system.
A fourth deficiency is the shellplate 25 does not offer firm support to the shell casings allowing powder filled shell casings to bounce and rattle, spilling powder during reloading.
A fifth deficiency is the camming pin 34 was constructed with only a tapered nose providing sliding contact with the slide cam 35. This causes excessive friction and vibration of the case feeder. The above noted faults cause hazardous powder spillage during the reloading process necessitating a slower reloading speed and increase operator fatigue.